Cub Cadet 3204 charge pump install

[Cookieone]

Hello everyone.

A few weeks ago one of neighbors asked me to take a look at his 3204. No hydraulics whatsoever. So I said yea just drop it off. So I determined pretty quick it was the gerator to the charge pump.
The gear was all in its place except it was in 5 pieces. Very little shavings in the screen filter and no damage at all to the surface of the charge pump. So I’ve opted to just change the gerator, shim and o-ring. Ok, now I’ll get to my question. After watching the videos on YouTube and reading through forums, everyone was taking the seat, fenders all that stuff off. Well, I flipped up the seat and in bout 10 min I was able to disconnect the hoses and unbolt and remove with no problem. I can’t see why it will be any different putting it back on unless, I’m missing something.
Any of you guys that’s done this project, am I missing anything? And did you guys do what I did?

Thanks!

[Ken41]

They say to use 2 pump shims instead of one to give a little extra clearance. One is only .001" thick. I put 2 shims in my 3240 just for the extra insurance so I would not have a problem in the future. The person that told me this got the advice from a factory person that worked on this issue from Cub Cadet. I took the fender off but wondered if I could have done it the way you did. Mine has the cast iron rear and this unit sits down in a bit of a pocket. If yours has the aluminum rear it may be different and easier so you would not have to take the rear fender off. Just make sure you get the gerator housing the right way or it won't work. Found the picture and this is how it is installed looking from the back forward. I got my parts from the company shown on the picture.

[Cookieone]

Thanks for the advice. I can’t see any problem putting it back on the way I took it off. Pretty easy repair. I’m still waiting on the oring to come in and I’ll have it back to going. I’m going to change the hydro fluid and filter also. I’ll do video of installing charge pump just so I can show it can be done.

[Cookieone]

OK, I didn’t have any problem getting the charge pump back on. Everything worked as it should. That is until I used it for about 30 min and the o-ring seal started leaking. I hadn’t received the new one so I went ahead and used the old one. I don’t remember where I ordered it from cause each of the 3 parts I ordered was from different companies. The gerator, the shim, and the o-ring. Now I can’t find anywhere it’s available. Does anyone have any suggestions on where to locate one?

[ol'George]

It should be a std. "O" ring, if your lucky it will be available from a larger hwd store or farm & home store.
your Parker store will have it as well as Granger.
The hwd store will be the least expensive. it is a $.50 "O" ring but some will try to get $5.00 for it or more

[guyina4x4]

If you have a caterpillar dealer nearby you have every o ring ever made available.

[Cookieone]

Yea it’s bout a hour away. I might have to do that. Thanks

[ol'George]

Be sure to take your old ring with you so they can match it up,
and write down the dash number of it, for future reference.

[Ken41]

As I stated above I got every thing here:

https://www.hydropumps.parts/parts-lookup/

It takes 2 O rings.

Did you use 2 shims as recommended?

[Cookieone]

Well I finally got all the parts yesterday and today I got everything put back on and all is good. I can’t see any reason why anything on the tractor has to be removed to for this repair. Just tie the seat up so it don’t keep falling down on ya. This was a very easy job. Thanks for the suggestions and words of advice everyone.
To answer the last question I did not use 2 shims. It was a task enough to get one lined up let alone 2. From what I’ve read the main problem was a defect in the steel for the gerator gear.